Hyperbaric Medicine

Center for Hyperbaric Medicine

Appointments

HCMC has been providing hyperbaric oxygen for patient care and research continuously since 1964. HCMC is one of a very small number of institutions in the US providing 24/7 availability of hyperbaric oxygen for emergency patients.

Our new state-of-the-art Center for Hyperbaric Medicine opened in 2012 and is comprised of three multiplace chambers and one monoplace chamber. Access to this street level facility in the main hospital complex is very easy for outpatients. At the same time, critically ill patients are easily transported to the facility from the emergency department, ICUs and operating suites. Critical care capabilities inside the chambers mirror those of contemporary ICUs.

The flexibility of the three multiplace chambers allows multiple routine patients to be treated at one time, while also treating one or more critically ill patients in another chamber. There is always a medical attendant inside the chamber with the patient(s). For critically ill patients, the inside attendant is a critical care nurse and/or physician. Treatments are supervised by an attending hyperbaric physician.

The facility meets all applicable ASME , NFPA, ISO, and FDA regulations. The Hyperbaric Medicine program at HCMC was recertified by UHMS "with distinction" in 2010. All facility personnel are certified in hyperbaric medicine within their job class. The technicians who operate the chambers are certified hyperbaric technicians and certified as care givers at least to the EMT or DMT level; the nurses are RNs experienced in critical care and certified as hyperbaric nurses; the physicians are board certified in Emergency Medicine and subspecialty certified by ABMS in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hyperbaric oxygen is a specialized medical treatment in which the patient breathes 100 percent oxygen while inside a chamber at increased atmospheric pressure.

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) is used for specific medical conditions. HBO has long been recognized as vital in the resolution of critical medical conditions such as gas gangrene, carbon monoxide poisoning, cerebral arterial gas embolism, and decompression sickness. It is also an important adjunctive therapy for other emergent conditions, such as necrotizing fasciitis, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and compromised skin flaps or grafts, and for chronic medical conditions such as refractory osteomyelitis, osteoradionecrosis, delayed soft tissue radiation injury, and Wagner 3 or greater foot ulcers in diabetic patients.

Treatment Indications

The Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at HCMC treats patients with diagnoses in the "Currently Accepted" categories, as determined every three years by the Hyperbaric Oxygen Committee of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), which lists as approved those conditions for which prevailing scientific data supports HBO. Other rare cases may be considered on an individual basis or as part of an established research protocol.

Using the latest technology

Hennepin County Medical Center's Center for Hyperbaric Medicine uses fluorescence microangiography, a technology that can assess blood flow in chronic, non-healing wounds and diabetic foot ulcers. Hennepin County Medical Center is the first in Minnesota to use the LUNA™ Imaging System for wound assessment.